The Writers' Block

[Australian rePublic]

Diogenes was a great Ancient Greek philosopher and one of the most brilliant minds of his time. However, he was also a stark raving lunatic. He was a homeless weirdo, by choice, and lived in a giant barrel. He spat, urinated and deficated everywhere. He ate in the agora (which was apparently a big no-no at the time) and when asked why he masturbated in public he said that if he could relieve his hunger by rubbing his belly, he would. Diogenes owned nothing but a bowl which he used to scoop water, until he saw a kid scooping water with his hands. This inspired Diogenes to dispose of his water bowl. He was called a "dog" because he fawned at those who gave him things and barked at those who gave him nothing. When Plato tried to define a human as simply as possible, Plato said featherless biped (keep in mind that they didn't know about kangaroos or dinosaurs in Ancient Greece). Diogenes busted into a class that Plato was teaching, mid-lecture, and showed Plato his plucked rooster and said "behold, your human". Too bad they couldn't diognose mental health issues in Ancient Greece. Anyways, there should be an issue regarding Diogenes. Write away!

[Candlewhisper Archive]

A better approach might to just have any issue about anything, and find room for an eccentric character called Dionne Jennis, perhaps having her leap out of a clay wine jar. Even better if said character is adopting a Diogenic stance on an issue, like, for example, criticising excessive respect for the dead.

[Candensia]

And speaking of the dead, I sincerely hope someone can write an issue on this. It sounds like it was meant to be in NS.

Carpool Lane Hearse

[My Nation]

This idea came to me a little while ago… but first I need to know, can issues reverse national policies?

[Australian rePublic]

This idea came to me a little while ago… but first I need to know, can issues reverse national policies?

Of coarse they can, that's the point of issues. Be more spacific

[My Nation]

This idea came to me a little while ago… but first I need to know, can issues reverse national policies?

Of coarse they can, that's the point of issues. Be more spacific

Great, thanks! My idea is an issue that can remove the policy “Conscription.” It’s a really basic idea at the moment, still needs a title and more brainstorming, but here’s the main structure:

Validity: Nation must have the national policy of Conscription.

Description (just a main idea, needs to be written properly): Citizens have been protesting that the nation has made a year of military service mandatory, saying it interferes with their schedules, they have to be away from family, etc.

Option 1: Remove the policy for the sake of the reasons mentioned above.

Option 2: Keep the policy and request a little more government funding towards the military.

Option 3: Increase the 1-year service minimum to 2 (maybe 3) years. Reason being that citizens do not have enough discipline.

As I am considering writing this issue, can someone check if it already exists? If it doesn’t, can I get some suggestions, especially for the title? Thanks!

[Trotterdam]

Repeals need to be based on something more substantial than "people are complaining about this policy".

We have several ways of removing Conscription already, most notably #184 (which, yeah, is "people are complaining about this policy"... it's an old issue before modern writing guidelines were developed), #810, and #956 (fairly similar to your premise: conscription getting way of citizens doing other important stuff).

[My Nation]

Repeals need to be based on something more substantial than "people are complaining about this policy".

We have several ways of removing Conscription already, most notably #184 (which, yeah, is "people are complaining about this policy"... it's an old issue before modern writing guidelines were developed), #810, and #956 (fairly similar to your premise: conscription getting way of citizens doing other important stuff).

Darn… I really wanted to write that issue. Oh well, thanks for checking for me!

Wait, before I go: are there any other policy reversals that haven’t been written yet?

[SherpDaWerp]

I asked about this a while back, but my query wasn't answered. It's fair enough, another more interesting debate started at the exact same time.
Anyway, I know it's a very niche case, but would an issue responding to a WA condemnation be

1. A good idea
2. Able to be implemented (i.e. can WA condemnations be tracked by the issue validity code)
3. and is it feasible given the extremely small population of condemned nations?

Another version could also be written responding to a commendation, but there's less nationwide discussion coming from people saying "you are doing well" as opposed to the international community telling the nation that they are doing something wrong.

[Sanctaria]

I asked about this a while back, but my query wasn't answered. It's fair enough, another more interesting debate started at the exact same time.
Anyway, I know it's a very niche case, but would an issue responding to a WA condemnation be

1. A good idea
2. Able to be implemented (i.e. can WA condemnations be tracked by the issue validity code)
3. and is it feasible given the extremely small population of condemned nations?

Another version could also be written responding to a commendation, but there's less nationwide discussion coming from people saying "you are doing well" as opposed to the international community telling the nation that they are doing something wrong.

It'd be too much work, and we'd have to get the admins involved to code a new validity for us.

And it wouldn't be interesting - the majority of those condemned are condemned for Gameplay or R/D purposes. They generally have a limited or no interest at all in issues.

[Chan Island]

Repeals need to be based on something more substantial than "people are complaining about this policy".

We have several ways of removing Conscription already, most notably #184 (which, yeah, is "people are complaining about this policy"... it's an old issue before modern writing guidelines were developed), #810, and #956 (fairly similar to your premise: conscription getting way of citizens doing other important stuff).

Darn… I really wanted to write that issue. Oh well, thanks for checking for me!

Wait, before I go: are there any other policy reversals that haven’t been written yet?

Many. We've been struggling to get an issue to reinstate an upper house to the government, and reversing absolute primogeniture without removing monarchy entirely has been impossible so far.

Also, don't be dissuaded from pursuing the idea of repealing conscription. Just think about what actual problems come from that policy? Take a look at the ones presented for example, we have:

1) People don't like it.
2) Conscripts tend to be inferior soldiers
3) Conscription gets in the way of doing other things.

But I'm sure you can think of other problems inherent with conscription. Spitballing here, but perhaps you could pursue the idea that making everyone join the military makes everyone think like a soldier, which might hurt the arts and creative management? Maybe you could discuss how people who are abjectly not fit as soldiers are now giving drill sergeants an absolute nightmare of a time. What about women, the sick and the disabled- or even immigrants? And what should the country do if lots of people find they still like the military life after their conscription and try to stick around? Or people emigrating/changing their nationality in a bid to avoid conscription?

There are many possibilities - have fun with it!

[Chan Island]

I asked about this a while back, but my query wasn't answered. It's fair enough, another more interesting debate started at the exact same time.
Anyway, I know it's a very niche case, but would an issue responding to a WA condemnation be

1. A good idea
2. Able to be implemented (i.e. can WA condemnations be tracked by the issue validity code)
3. and is it feasible given the extremely small population of condemned nations?

Another version could also be written responding to a commendation, but there's less nationwide discussion coming from people saying "you are doing well" as opposed to the international community telling the nation that they are doing something wrong.

The Security Council has passed 284 resolutions from time of writing in it's entire history. Of which many are commendations. And condemnations of entire regions, not individual nations. And repeals, let's not forget repeals.

So probably not worth it.

[Luna Amore]

I asked about this a while back, but my query wasn't answered. It's fair enough, another more interesting debate started at the exact same time.
Anyway, I know it's a very niche case, but would an issue responding to a WA condemnation be

1. A good idea
2. Able to be implemented (i.e. can WA condemnations be tracked by the issue validity code)
3. and is it feasible given the extremely small population of condemned nations?

Another version could also be written responding to a commendation, but there's less nationwide discussion coming from people saying "you are doing well" as opposed to the international community telling the nation that they are doing something wrong.

It'd be too much work, and we'd have to get the admins involved to code a new validity for us.

And it wouldn't be interesting - the majority of those condemned are condemned for Gameplay or R/D purposes. They generally have a limited or no interest at all in issues.

I think we could swing the code already without admin intervention.**

The second point is why I wouldn't bother. The people who qualify by and large don't answer issues. Once you winnow it down to nations who have been condemned and answer issues, you could probably count the qualifying nations on your hands.



** Now that I'm back at a computer, I tested and it is possible to restrict issues to Commended or Condemned nations with existing code.

[Kaztropol]

I saw an unusual headline that I hadn't seen before after answering an issue today.

That headline being: "Salespeople Report Rising Demand For Long Black Cars With Tinted Windows"

I couldn't figure out what statistic change could have generated that headline. Most of the time, headlines are easy to link to one of the statistic changes. So what stat change generated that headline, and why have I never seen it before ?

[SherpDaWerp]

We've been struggling to get an issue to reinstate an upper house to the government

I've drafted a relatively successful issue for fixing that already...

And it wouldn't be interesting - the majority of those condemned are condemned for Gameplay or R/D purposes. They generally have a limited or no interest at all in issues.

The second point is why I wouldn't bother. The people who qualify by and large don't answer issues. Once you winnow it down to nations who have been condemned and answer issues, you could probably count the qualifying nations on your hands.

Aw, nuts. It would be interesting to write, but if it's not feasible as an option that's too bad I guess. Thanks!

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I wouldn't be keen on any mechanism that "rewards" condemnation anyway... Having access to a super-special issue that no-one else gets to receive certainly feels like a reward.

[Lord Dominator]

I am massively amused by the newspaper image for "Do You Want Fries With That?" (#483) being a protest image where the only visible sign is a big one saying "NO."

Kudos to whichever one of you editors chose that one

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I am massively amused by the newspaper image for "Do You Want Fries With That?" (#483) being a protest image where the only visible sign is a big one saying "NO."

Kudos to whichever one of you editors chose that one

Guilty as charged. Surprisingly versatile picture, that one.

My favourite picture assignation is for Issue 32, which Max picked.

[Australian rePublic]

Without Jutsa to keep us updated, it's hard to keep count. How many issues are we up to now?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

1255.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

And now 1256.

What? We're fast workers.

[Chan Island]

And now 1256.

What? We're fast workers.

An issue every 3 minutes

[Australian rePublic]

And now 1256.

What? We're fast workers.

An issue every 3 minutes

That's about as frequent as that metro line the government keeps promoting

[Verdant Haven]

I'm interested in writing up an issue that's tackling Palm Oil production, and the tremendous environmental impact it has.

Problem is, issue 685 (Externalities Palmed Off) already functionally writes about Palm Oil production... but not really. It is related to the inconvenience of smoke from slash and burn agriculture wafting across the border - it just happens to frame it, for no necessary reason, in terms of overseas Palm Oil production. One option is to declare an embargo on Palm Oil products from this specific neighbor.

I'm finding this very frustrating, because the issue doesn't actually have much of anything to do with Palm Oil, but I feel like it and its effects might be too close for comfort to allow for a more relevant issue on this specific topic. Anybody have any thoughts? Would such an issue be writable so long as it had a validity check against those who took 685.2 (the embargo)? Would it just be too bothersome to write? My intent was that it would be looking at domestic production, rather than foreign.

CWA - I'm particularly interested in your feedback on this, since you're the editor on 685, and I know this is a topic that is of concern/interest to you.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I'm totally up for a good author (which would be you, yaaaay) taking on palm oil again from a different angle. I absolutely agree that the issue doesn't go far into the whole palm oil debate, but when it came up I snapped it up immediately, as it was just about the only draft ever submitted that even mentioned palm oil.

Palm oil is a big enough topic to support at least a couple more issues. There's the orangutan extinction, and the displaced populations, and of course there's the loss of rainforest. Whichever angle you take, count me as interested.